Chandigarh: Private vehicles plying on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway would continue to enjoy free ride during the peak hours as the Punjab and Haryana high court on on Wednesday ordered to maintain the status quo.

The Delhi-Gurgaon expressway concessionaire will collect toll tax from the motorists, except during the peak traffic hours of the day.

On the previous hearing on September 28, relaxing its earlier order dated September 4, when the concessionaire had been barred from collecting the toll tax, a Division Bench of Justices Satish Kumar Mittal and Inderjit Singh had ordered that no toll would be charged from 8.30am to 10am and from 5. 30pm to 7pm every day.

The orders had come into force from 7pm onwards from Friday last and after the Court's Wednesday's direction they will remain in force till October 8, when the court will again take up the case.

Taking U-turn near the Ambience Mall along the Expressway has been barred till the next hearing, the time till which the court will see what more steps are taken to decongest the vehicular traffic by the concessionaire.

On the previous hearing, the court pulled up Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL), the concessionaire, for failing to find a solution to traffic chaos on the expressway.

The Delhi Municipal Corporation had earlier moved the court requesting permission for collection of toll tax from the commercial vehicles.

It had insisted that these vehicles were entering Delhi from Gurgaon side to avoid toll tax, resulting in more rush on the expressway and thus affecting the traffic even inside Delhi.

On September 4, the court had restrained the concessionaire from collecting toll tax after it found that the company had failed to find a solution to the traffic chaos during collection of the same.